The present invention relates to user interface techniques for link creation. More specifically, the invention relates to creation of links between cards or other workspaces that may be linked into a network.
Halasz, F. G., Moran, T., and Trigg, R. H., "NoteCards in a Nutshell," CHI+GI'87 Conference, Toronto, Canada, Apr. 5-9, 1987, incorporated herein by reference, describe a hypertext-like system, identified by the term NoteCards, a trademark of Xerox Corporation. This system employs workspaces called cards, each of which occupies a part of the screen space and may contain text, graphics, bitmap images, etc. Multiple cards can be displayed simultaneously, each in a separate window as shown and described in relation to FIG. 1. A card can be connected to another card by a link, represented within the contents of the originating card by a display object called a link icon, which may be a box with the title of the destination card. When a user selects a link's icon with a mouse button click, the destination card of that link is displayed.
NoteCards.TM. Release 1.2i Reference Manual, Xerox Corporation, 1985, ("the NoteCards Manual"), also incorporated herein by reference, describes the conventional technique for creating a link in NoteCards. This technique, described at pages 13-14 and 22, includes a number of steps each performed by selecting a location on the display with a mouse and clicking a button on the mouse at the selected location. First, the user selects and clicks the location of the new link in the text of the source card. Then, the users selects and clicks a new link operation within a menu. The user selects and clicks the type of the new link on another menu. Unless the destination card is an existing card, the user selects and clicks the creation of a new destination card on yet another menu. The user selects and clicks the type of the new card on a further menu. The user performs additional selection and typing operations to name the new card. Techniques for moving or copying an existing link icon from one card to another are described at page 75. Techniques for creating a link from the NoteCards browser are described at page 80. Insertion of multiple links is described at page 82.
Meyrowitz, N., "Intermedia: The Architecture and Construction of an Object-Oriented Hypermedia System and Applications Framework," OOPSLA '86 Conference Proceedings, Sept. 29-Oct. 2, 1986, Portland, OR., pp. 186-201, describes a hypermedia system, Intermedia, that also includes link creation. As described at page 188, the process of creating links includes a number of steps: create a source selection, called a block; choose the "start link" command; pick a destination block; and choose the "end link" command. The result of this linking operation is a bidirectional tie between the source block and destination block such that when a user selects a block and issues the "follow" command, the document containing the companion block is retrieved from storage, if necessary, and displayed, as shown in FIG. 1. Page 192 describes how links are records that keep track of two connected blocks as well as link keywords, creation and modify time, author, and other link-specific data. Garrett, L. N., Smith, K. E., and Meyrowitz, N., "Intermedia: Issues, Strategies, and Tactics in the Design of a Hypermedia Document System," Proceedings of CSCW '86, Austin TX., Dec. 3-5, 1986, pp. 163-174, also describe Intermedia. Pages 163-164 describe the linking of information including: indicating a source selection in a document, choosing the Start Link command, indicating a destination selection, and choosing the Complete Relation command. The selection of commands is illustrated in FIGS. 1a and 1b. Linking is discussed in more detail at pages 165-168. Pages 167-168 describe enhancing link functionality by techniques including automatically-created links for an on-line encyclopedia; a footnote link type represented by an automatically-numbered icon; a vocabulary link type that automatically finds the definition to link to in a dictionary file; user-defined links; and conditional links whose destination depends on user's expertise or previous path.
Henderson, D. A., Jr., and Card, S. K., "Rooms: The Use of Multiple Virtual Workspaces to Reduce Space Contention in a Window-Based Graphical User Interface," ACM Transactions on Graphics, Vol. 5, No. 3, July 1986, pp. 211-243, describe a window management system for a workstation that includes virtual workspaces called Rooms that are linked, the links being represented by icons called Doors as shown and described in relation to FIG. 9. As described at page 222 and in more detail at pages 229-230, when a user selects a Door's icon to leave one Room and enter another, the entered Room contains a Back Door that can be selected to return to the Room from which the user came. This Back Door is created at the time the user selects the icon to enter that Room, and its purpose is to simplify the task of returning to a previous Room. Techniques for creation of other Doors are described at pages 233-234. Rooms, Doors and Back Doors are trademarks of Xerox Corporation. This system is also described in detail in copending, coassigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 030,766, entitled "User Interface with Multiple Virtual Workspaces for Sharing Display System Objects," incorporated herein by reference and discussed below.